When a woman shows up and claims to be Sara’s birth mother, it pits Sara and Sean against each other. Sara opens her heart and wants to believe the woman, but Sean is suspicious of her true identity and motive. After all, there are billions at stake. But when the woman goes missing and a dead body turns up, they both start to question the truth.

Led by Sara’s intuition, they pursue all possible leads and soon realize they may have welcomed a killer into their home.

CAROLYN ARNOLD is an international best-selling and award-winning author, as well as a speaker, teacher, and inspirational mentor. She has four continuing fiction series—Detective Madison Knight, Brandon Fisher FBI, McKinley Mysteries, and Matthew Connor Adventures—and has written nearly thirty books. Her genre diversity offers her readers everything from cozy to hard-boiled mysteries, and thrillers to action adventures.

Both her female detective and FBI profiler series have been praised by those in law enforcement as being accurate and entertaining, leading her to adopt the trademark: POLICE PROCEDURALS RESPECTED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT™.

Carolyn was born in a small town and enjoys spending time outdoors, but she also loves the lights of a big city. Grounded by her roots and lifted by her dreams, her overactive imagination insists that she tell her stories. Her intention is to touch the hearts of millions with her books, to entertain, inspire, and empower.

She currently lives just west of Toronto with her husband and beagle and is a member of Crime Writers of Canada.

SEAN KNEW
SARA’S HEART WAS jumping in before she listened to the warnings that would be going
off in her head. But that was his Sara—always taking a leap before assessing
the fall. He wasn’t just going to stand by and watch the woman he loved get
hurt, though. The chances of this being her mother, after all these years, was
hard to believe. Why resurface now if it wasn’t for the money? It seemed easier
to accept that she was a fake, playing a role in
staking a claim in their fortune.

While the DNA tests
would confirm or deny whether she was, in fact, Sara’s biological mother, until
then how much drama would Sara live through? Whether she verbalized it or not,
he could tell by the subtle twist of her lips, the way she looked on this
woman, that she wanted to believe this was her real mom. There was also a mess
in Sara’s eyes, a swirl that, to him, spoke to guilt.

Sara hadn’t stopped
moving since they got back to the house. She was hurrying around tidying up and
preparing the meal.

On her way by this
time, he took her hand to slow her stride, and he drew her in to him. “You can relax, darling. It will all
work out.”

“I just want
everything to be perfect.” Her eyes scanned his.

“And it will be.” He
led her to a sofa in their sitting room. “Please, darling, sit and let’s talk.”

Her eyes sparked. “I
know what you’re going to say.”

He tapped the tip of
her nose. “You’ve always been sort of a mind reader, but—”

“You’re going to tell
me to keep my head about me, to not rush to accept this woman as my mother.”

The way she stared
into his eyes made him feel like he was the enemy. “I just don’t want you to
get hurt.”

“And I appreciate
that.” Her raised shoulders relaxed slightly, and her tone softened when she
continued. “I know that you had a rough life, Sean. You lost your mother when
you were nine, your father when you were a young adult. But I’ve never known my
real parents.” She paused, and there was that flicker of guilt dancing across
her eyes. “Jeannie and Leon are the world
to me. They were there for me from the beginning and will always be Mom and
Dad. But, if this woman is who she claims to be, well, this may sound silly,
but I’ll feel I belong in this world.”

He wasn’t prepared
for those words and they attacked him as if a thrown fist, hitting him dead in
the heart.

She put her hand on
his leg. “Darling, please, know that I love you with all my heart and soul.”

He nodded. No words
would form.

“And that didn’t come
out right. I know I belong because of you, because of Jeannie and Leon, but
this is my chance to know where I came from. I have never had a blood relative
all my life.”

The way her eyes misted
as she spoke chipped away at the gnawing pain in his chest, somehow making his
life experience seem less significant. Still, losing his mother had impacted
him as a boy. He remembered the isolation, the separation from others his age
when there were school outings. Even watching his friends unpack their boxed
lunches, he knew their mothers had taken extra care. His dad had tried, bless
his soul, but he was a man. He didn’t put the little cards in his lunch box
telling him to smile or reminding him that
he was loved. While the boys who received these would blush from embarrassment,
Sean would have traded spots with them in a heartbeat.

Yes, he knew grief,
he knew heartache, he knew what it was like to be left in the world without a
blood relative—but the latter not fully. He had his dad until he was nineteen
and, to this day, he had his uncle Ray, although he lived in North Carolina.

He wanted to warn her
to guard her heart, but seeing the look in her eyes, he couldn’t speak those
words. “I’m happy for you.”

She leaned in and
kissed him, then pulled back slowly. “I love you for that.”

He nodded and smiled.
She had stolen his heart two years ago when he’d first met her, and with their
spoken vows that bond had only solidified into concrete.

Sara tapped the couch
and went to get up. “I better get that roast in the oven.”

“Roast?”

One of her brows
arched slightly higher than the other, a smirk on her lips. “Yes, and I am
fully capable of cooking it, you know.”

He raised his hands
in surrender. “Hey, I never said that you weren’t.”

“Uh-huh.” She laughed
as she pranced back to the kitchen.

Sean stayed on the
couch, his heart wanting to accept Leslie, but his mind warring against the
request. He would try to open up, for Sara’s sake, but there was a little voice
inside his head that cautioned him to stay vigilant.